Pressure letdown method and device for coal conversion systems

In combination with a reactor for a coal utilization system, a pressure letdown device accepts from a reactor, a polyphase fluid at an entrance pressure and an entrance velocity, and discharges the fluid from the device at a discharge pressure substantially lower than the entrance pressure and at a discharge temperature and a discharge velocity substantially equal to the entrance temperature and entrance velocity. The device is characterized by a series of pressure letdown stages including several symmetrical baffles, disposed in coaxially nested alignment. In each baffle several ports or apertures of uniform dimensions are defined. The number of ports or apertures for each baffle plate is unique with respect to the number of ports or apertures defined in each of the other baffles. The mass rate of flow for each port is a function of the area of the port, the pressure of the fluid as applied to the port, and a common pressure ratio established across the ports

Older Homeless Women: Beneath the Safety Net

Educational Objectives 1. Discuss how there is no stereotypical experience of, or explanation for, homelessness among older women. 2. Discuss why it is important to study the experiences of older homeless women. 3. Discuss policy and practice recommendations and specific ways to bridge efforts of aging and homeless service providers

Sustainability educator perspectives of impacts, potential and barriers of sustainability education

BACKGROUND Sustainability education has been identified as a way of providing people with the knowledge, skills, motivation and attitudes to live more sustainably, improve wellbeing and help reverse global trends of climate change and biodiversity decline. Despite sustainability being part of the Australian curriculum for over 20 years, many metrics of sustainability are not improving in Australia. For example, Australia still has the worst rate of mammalian extinction in the world and scores poorly for biodiversity conservation. Sustainability education is recognised as a lever that can lead to improved environmental outcomes and there are calls for education to be recognised as a pillar of sustainability. However, the impact of sustainability education programs is understudied and there is little evidence base for how to create programs that support students to translate knowledge into action. In the study we are presenting, we consulted with sustainability education practitioners to understand their perspectives on current impacts of sustainability education and how to expand those impacts. AIMS The study aims to understand these key questions: How does sustainability education influence attitudes and behaviours around biodiversity conservation and sustainability? What pedagogies support impactful sustainability education? What barriers and opportunities are there for education to help create more sustainable communities? DESIGN AND METHODS Sustainability education practitioners and advisers were consulted through semi-structured interviews, in a mixture of telephone, virtual and face-to-face modes. The interviews were coded for anonymity and transcribed. Transcripts were uploaded to nVivo and autocoded. Transcripts were also manually coded; both methods were explored in tandem to develop final codes and themes. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Nine people accepted the invitation for interview and returned the completed participant information and consent form. Six of the participants were from higher education institutions, the other three participants were from local and state government agencies, and one from a private organisation. Three participants were internationally based. Preliminary analysis suggests that practitioners see the potential of sustainability education to create behaviour change for more sustainable communities. Themes emerged around the importance of experiential, and personally meaningful learning that supports student agency to overcome barriers to behaviour change (e.g., student perceptions of costs and challenges of sustainability action). Better integration of sustainability concepts into formal and community-based education was identified as a lever to expand the impacts of sustainability

Sustainability education impacts on student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours and wellbeing

BACKGROUND Educating about sustainability is a critical step in moving towards a more sustainable future for humanity. And as higher education moves into the online space, there is greater potential for education for sustainability to reach bigger and more diverse audiences. The University of Tasmania’s (UTAS) Diploma of Sustainable Living is one such example. However, while sustainability education has the potential to impact student knowledge, attitudes and behaviours about sustainability, these impacts are rarely captured in a systematic way. In this presentation we introduce the outcome of a study designed to capture the impacts of taking a fully online unit, Backyard Biodiversity (KPZ006), part of the Diploma of Sustainable Living at UTAS. The study uses a survey, offered to students before and after taking the unit, to examine changes in student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and wellbeing. AIMS This study aims to understand if and how engaging with the online unit, Backyard Biodiversity, impacts on student knowledge, attitudes, behaviours, and wellbeing. DESCRIPTION OF INTERVENTION This study is designed to assess the impact of an online unit, Backyard Biodiversity, on its non- traditional (predominantly mature-aged, part-time) student cohort. This 12-week, Diploma-level unit is focused on understanding biodiversity, its benefits (using Sustainable Development Goals framework) and how to create a more biodiverse backyard. To do so, it uses an experiential learning approach where students learn about and engage with their own backyard and neighbourhood. The unit was consciously designed to have co-benefits for student wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviours. DESIGN AND METHODS We draw on a mixed-methods research design by including survey questions that facilitate quantitative (e.g. Likert scale questions) and qualitative (e.g. open-ended questions) analyses. The before-after surveys have been offered to students since the unit’s inception in 2020 and are matched according to an anonymous linking code. To date, over 1500 total surveys have been completed but in this analysis, we included only paired surveys - those that had a matched before and after survey completed (n = 140). We report the average responses before and after for selected questions and use T-tests to determine statistically significant differences. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS We found that there was a statistically significant increase in students’ subjective knowledge, and agency around biodiversity management. There were significant changes in how important students considered biodiversity to be and how connected they felt to nature. Students reported more pro- environmental behaviours after taking the unit and many believed that taking the unit improved their wellbeing. While there are limitations to this approach, our study suggests that sustainability education, even fully online units, can create real impacts for sustainability

Chimpanzees demonstrate individual differences in social information use

Studies of transmission biases in social learning have greatly informed our understanding of how behaviour patterns may diffuse through animal populations, yet within-species inter-individual variation in social information use has received little attention and remains poorly understood. We have addressed this question by examining individual performances across multiple experiments with the same population of primates. We compiled a dataset spanning 16 social learning studies (26 experimental conditions) carried out at the same study site over a 12-year period, incorporating a total of 167 chimpanzees. We applied a binary scoring system to code each participant’s performance in each study according to whether they demonstrated evidence of using social information from conspecifics to solve the experimental task or not (Social Information Score—‘SIS’). Bayesian binomial mixed effects models were then used to estimate the extent to which individual differences influenced SIS, together with any effects of sex, rearing history, age, prior involvement in research and task type on SIS. An estimate of repeatability found that approximately half of the variance in SIS was accounted for by individual identity, indicating that individual differences play a critical role in the social learning behaviour of chimpanzees. According to the model that best fit the data, females were, depending on their rearing history, 15–24% more likely to use social information to solve experimental tasks than males. However, there was no strong evidence of an effect of age or research experience, and pedigree records indicated that SIS was not a strongly heritable trait. Our study offers a novel, transferable method for the study of individual differences in social learning

Editorial overview : theoretical traditions in social values for sustainability

This special feature provides an impression of the plurality of social values for sustainability, taking into account theoretical traditions within mainstream and heterodox economics; positive, social and environmental psychology; human geography; anthropology; sociology; religious and indigenous studies and business management. Papers in this issue respond to questions of: how do we conceptualise social values; how do we integrate or share social values; what are processes for learning about and mechanisms for forming and changing social values; and what are the associations between social values and behaviour or well-being? Consistent with post-normal science, we suggest that there is no one correct way of conceptualising, assessing, integrating or activating social values for sustainability. We present five arguments: (1) the plurality of social values can be conceptualised along many different dimensions, with reference to value, epistemic and procedural lenses; (2) values are nested in different hierarchies, resulting in the potential for different forms of value articulations and pathways of value expression; (3) not all social values are pre-formed and readily drawn upon, instead needing pathways of deliberation or intervention to be activated; (4) social values may change through different processes or pathways of intervention, and; (5) power matters in the formation and assessment of social values. We discuss the tensions that arise when attempting to integrate different perspectives and introduce the notion of ‘navigation’ to begin to address these tensions. Navigation requires scholars to adopt a more critical and reflexive approach to value enquiry than is currently espoused in sustainability science and practice.Non peer reviewe

Human Cardiomyocytes Prior to Birth by Integrationâ Free Reprogramming of Amniotic Fluid Cells

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135525/1/Supplemental_Information.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135525/2/sct320165121595.pd